


Fly Away

by Erica_T



Category: Captain America (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: And is so awesome, BAMF Darcy Lewis, Darcy is an ATA pilot, F/M, Peggy Carter recruits her, Pre-Avengers: Age of Ultron (Movie), Time Travel, Wartime Fic, darcy travels through time has become a popular thing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-02
Updated: 2017-06-05
Packaged: 2018-04-18 14:45:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 17,264
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4709786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Erica_T/pseuds/Erica_T
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>England 2014 - Steve Rogers answers an emergency call out to a fire at Jane Foster's lab, and the woman that he pulls out of the burning building has an impossibly familiar face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> So, I've noticed quite a few 'Darcy accidentally travels through time' fics lately. All are very good, however, they're all along the vein of 'Darcy travels back in time and meets a pre-serum Steve Rogers'. And I thought, well, what about a fic where Darcy travels - forward- in time?   
> Fortunately, I've been toying with this story for a while, and it's finally mostly ready for human consumption :)

Prologue – Late 2014

Steve was fully aware that the emergency call out to Dr. Jane Foster’s lab hadn’t been meant for him personally. But, he happened to be in London with Sam, following a lead on Bucky, and they’d picked it up on the emergency services scanner. Thor had been in touch often since the business in London the previous autumn, so Steve had recognized the address when he heard it come through late that night. 

He went out to the scene, since he was awake and in the area, he figured that he could at least lend a hand. 

Whatever had happened, the end result was a fire of epic proportions consuming the building, and as he arrived, he could hear a woman’s voice screaming for someone to ‘Get the hell back in there and get her out!’ 

The source, when he found her, was a tiny brunette woman that Thor was physically restraining from coming to blows with a firefighter, whom he was also arguing forcefully with. 

“Sir, we’ve swept the building and found no other persons present…”

“She was upstairs! You have to go back in and check the back rooms upstairs!” 

“The structural integrity of the building…” The woman gave an anguished howl and leapt at the man, only Thor’s arm around her waist stopped her from actually making contact. 

“I’ll go. I just need to know who I’m looking for.” Steve offered, cutting off anything else that might have been said. Thor recognized him immediately and offered him a grim greeting. The woman, he assumed that she was Dr. Foster, sagged in Thor’s grip and Steve could see that she’d been injured, one of her arms was hanging uselessly at her side, dislocated at the shoulder. She didn’t seem to care. 

“Her name is Darcy. Please, you have to get her out!”

Steve frowned, shaking his head before he waved away the firefighter’s protests and launched himself, shield and all, into the burning building.

Flames licked at his clothes as he forced his way through the heat and smoke up the stairs, calling out the girl’s name as he went. For a few moments, all he heard was the roaring fire and the ominous cracking of the building’s foundations, but then he heard a sputtered cough from inside one of the rooms at the end of the hall.

When he forced his way in that direction, he found a crumpled form in front of an open door, all dark hair and clothes and not much else. Assuming that this was the missing Darcy, he scooped her up and made for the nearest window, crashing through it to the outside, the girl only upsetting his balance slightly when he landed on the ground. 

The shouting of the firefighters let him know that he’d been seen, and there was a roar as the building collapsed behind him, he had at least managed to put enough distance between them and the building to avoid getting hit by falling debris. 

He heard Dr. Foster’s shout of relief as he laid her friend out on the ground, and that was when he got a look at the girl’s face.

Steve blinked the smoke out of his eyes, letting the shield fall from suddenly limp fingers. It wasn’t possible. But, Norse gods and aliens were realities…so then what wasn’t possible?   
But it couldn’t be her, it had to be a weird coincidence, a family member who took after her. There had to be a reasonable explanation. 

Her breath hitched and her eyes opened, and eyes that Steve remembered far too clearly stared up at him blankly. Belatedly, he remembered that the woman he knew hadn’t any family left when he knew her. She coughed and then focused on his face, her own reflecting the same shock that he was feeling. She blinked rapidly. 

“Hello handsome…” She muttered hoarsely. Out of the corner of his eye he could see Thor and Dr. Foster making their way towards them.

“Darcy? But, how?” 

She shook her head, and made to speak, but a coughing fit overtook her and then she lost consciousness once more.

Steve could only stare at her as Thor and Dr. Foster came up beside him, both talking at once, but he barely heard what they were saying, his brain was still trying to process what was happening right in front of him. 

Darcy Lewis died in 1944, before he lost Bucky, before he crashed into the Atlantic to save New York City. 

Darcy Lewis was lying in his arms, alive and breathing in 2014. 

This was impossible. Wasn’t it?


	2. Chapter 1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In 2014, Steve starts telling the story from 1944.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow! So many kudos and comments, I am amazed! Thanks to the encouragement, here's the next chapter, however I am off to FanExpo tomorrow, so there will be no update until at least Monday. Hayley Atwell is going to be there, and I will be getting her autograph as well as a photo op, and I will be trying my hardest not to fangirl all over her.

England – 2014

Once they had cleared the destroyed building, the emergency services people had rapidly descended on them and managed to convince Dr. Foster into the back of an ambulance, however only after she made both Thor and himself promise that Darcy wouldn’t be left alone. Since Thor had been fairly itching to stay with Foster, and Steve was till highly confused about what was going on, he had offered to stay with her friend. Thor had stared at him intently for a full minute, before he agreed to the idea and promised to locate them at the hospital once he had ensured that Jane was taken care of. 

It was a whirlwind of hands and voices as Darcy was triaged by the EMTs and then swiftly loaded into the back of another ambulance, and Steve may or may not have used the presence of his shield as a boarding pass to travel with her. He only took a moment to text Sam to come and get the car. Though, when he received the response tinged with annoyance, he belatedly remembered would mean that Sam would also have to work his way to the site by some other means, since it was the only car that they had. 

He managed to stay with her in the Emergency area, the doctor who examined her had looked at him askance but no one was going to question Captain America, apparently. They did hand him a bunch of admission forms that needed to be completed, but the nurse that had given them to him had told him to take his time with them to make sure that they were complete. He figured that he'd ask Dr. Foster for Darcy’s details as she knew them to fill out the pages, since he could hardly write down that the girl had been born in 1920. 

He had been turfed from her side by a pair of capable nurses when they moved her into her own room, the nurses needed to change her out of her sooty and singed clothes and into one of their hospital gowns, as well as get her situated comfortably in her bed. He would be allowed to come back in when they were done. 

So, that meant that he was waiting outside of Darcy’s hospital room when Thor found him, some hours after they’d left the site of the fire. 

“Sleep has overcome Jane, and she has bid me to bring a report on Darcy’s condition when she next awakes.”

Steve nodded and offered him a smile. 

“The doctor that treated her says that she’ll be alright. She’s got some burns on her hand, she had to have opened the door out of that back room without covering her hand up, but they say it’ll heal fine. They’ve put her on oxygen too, for her lungs. They’re getting her settled in there right now.” He indicated the closed door. 

“You have history with her.” Thor said. It was not a question. 

Steve nodded, and found himself gazing at his hands as he mulled over what to say

“You know about my history, right? Coulson had briefing packets on everyone….” 

“Indeed. Your story is most intriguing Steven, I did wish that there had been more time to talk of it when we last met. But, as I understand it, you were born in the Earth year 1918, and you fought in one of the most significant wars in this planet’s recent history. You were thought lost, saving your country from a terrible fate, but instead, you were frozen in ice for nearly seventy of your years, am I correct?” 

“That’s the basic story, yes. When I went under, it was 1944, and we were still at war. When I woke up, it was 2012, and the war’s been won.”

“A most interesting tale.”

“Yeah, I’ll tell you about that some time,” Steve paused, gathering his thoughts. “You’ve seen wars, Thor. A lot of lives are lost in war, and most of them don’t deserve it. It’s something that everyone who’s fought has to accept. But it’s always more tragic when women are involved. I knew Darcy Lewis for three days in 1944. Just three days. And I’ll never forget them."

* * * 

England - 1944

Bucky had been trying, unsuccessfully, to pick up a pretty girl in the lounge when Peggy’s call out came in. It had been highly entertaining to watch, because he was very obviously striking out, and she would laugh and send a teasing glance Steve's way every time Bucky tried again. 

“I don’t get it, punk. I’m batting zero these days. I’m still reasonably attractive, even standing next to you, aren’t I?” 

Steve shrugged as he tugged on his suit in the barracks. 

“If I were a dame, you would be my first choice.” Steve told him drily. Bucky punched him in the shoulder, and made a show of frowning at his knuckles while Steve laughed at him. "To be fair though, she was passing over just about every fella who was trying to get on with her.” 

The little brunette had even caught Steve’s eye, he was just as red blooded as any other man, and he did like brunettes. This gal wore her hair long and loose and she was all curves and ready smiles, and she had shot Bucky down before he even got rolling. She and Peggy could have been sisters, though he could tell from her accent that she was American. That also interested him, there were not that many American women over here that would be passing time in an SSR designated lounge, so she had to have a story, and that was what intrigued Steve the most. 

“And it’s not like you’re in there actively trying to pick anyone up, you’re just there, you might as well be part of the furniture, for all the action you’re accomplishing.” Bucky continued to complain. Steve rolled his eyes.

“Oh, thank you very much.” 

“I’m just saying.”

“Are you coming on a mission with the rest of the class Buck, or are you going to sit in here and mope over your terrible luck with women?” 

“Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.” 

 

There was more muttered grumbling, but Bucky followed him out to the airfield where the rest of the Commandos were gathering around a plane with Peggy. 

The mission was fairly simple, Intel had come in about a small Hydra base being set up in occupied France. It was hardly surprising, given how many bases that Captain America and the Howling Commandos had destroyed in the last few months. 

Since it was still under construction, taking it out of the equation was going to be a fairly easy task, a couple of well-aimed grenades and a nice fire would probably do the trick. Where it got problematic would be getting in and out. There were few roads, as it was located in a heavily forested area, and therefore space for an aircraft to land was also limited. Not impossible, but it would take all of Howard’s skill. 

So, it was a little bit of a surprise when Steve and the Commandos assembled on the tarmac to find only Peggy waiting for them, no Howard in sight. 

“Where’s Howard?” Steve asked, after Dum Dum had filed onto the plane after Gabe. Dernier, Morita and Farnsworth followed the other man onto the plan without any other comment. Peggy offered him a small smile and an apologetic shrug. 

“Howard was called back to New York earlier this afternoon, something about one of his factories about to implode. So, we’ve had to arrange for someone else to fly this mission with you.”

“Someone order up a pilot?”

The distinctly female voice gave them a start and Steve turned around to find the pretty brunette from the club standing behind them. She had swapped her pretty dress and high heels for a bomber jacket and combat boots, and the pair of gold wings pinned to the collar of her jacket identified her as an Air Transport Auxiliary pilot. 

She looked better than she had at the club, and she raised her eyebrows at their dumbstruck looks. Beside them, Peggy was trying to smother a grin. Bucky’s jaw dropped.

“You’re a pilot?” He asked, and the incredulous tone in his voice made Steve elbow him sharply. Both women turned scathing looks on the poor Sergeant, and Steve momentarily felt sorry for him. 

“Gentlemen, meet First Officer Darcy Lewis, she’ll be your pilot for this mission, and I assure you that she has been fully briefed. First Officer, Captain Rogers and Sergeant Barnes. The remainder of the team have already boarded the plane, you’ll meet them momentarily.” 

Darcy Lewis smiled at Steve and held out her hand.

“I believe that we’ve met.” He smiled back at her as he shook her hand.

“We have, First Officer, though I'm sure you'll agree it was not exactly formal." 

"No, it was not. Though, you have the excuse of having been on the other side of the room. The Sergeant here, however, needs to remember to ask a girl her name before inviting her to share a drink with him." 

Peggy might have snorted, if snorting with laughter was something that Peggy Carter did. As it was, she covered it with a cough and looked away, still beating back the smirk. 

Bucky though, seemed to be intent on digging himself into a hole. 

“You sure you can handle a Gooney Bird*, doll?” He asked her, and Steve found himself elbowing him again, more sharply. The jerk wasn’t normally sexist, since both of their Ma’s had been hard working women, and either woman would have belted him around the ear for having said what he’d just said. He wasn’t sure what his problem was with Miss Lewis, but Steve was seriously considering shoving him in the cargo hold, just to avoid him making their pilot so angry that she dumped them out over the water without chutes. For her part, the First Officer’s eyes narrowed at him dangerously.

“A Douglas C-47? It’s got wings, yeah?”

“Sure does.”

“And can I safely assume that the engine is running smoothly?” She directed this at Peggy, who consulted something in her file.

“Last service check says, yes, the engine is functioning within all of its normal parameters, and there’s a lovely note here from the pilot who ferried her over that the windshield wipers are sticky.”

Lewis nodded thoughtfully.

“Yes, I think I took care of that when I landed her with a spot of oil. Sergeant, long as the engine works, if it’s got wings, I can fly her. Perhaps you’d like my credentials? My daddy taught me how to fly in crop dusters when I was twelve. I’m a fully licenced commercial pilot, and the ATA has certified me on all classes of aircraft currently in use by the RAF and the Fleet Air Arm. Now, if you’d like I can just head on back to my bunk, but I think you’ll be in for an awfully long walk.”

Bucky, bless him, may have been behaving stupidly, but he still knew when to be smart. Steve grinned as he saluted her and gestured to the plane. 

“After you ma’am.”

She nodded once and sashayed past him to board the plane. Steve turned to Peggy after Bucky followed her up.

“The Air Transport Auxiliary flies supply planes.” 

“ATA flies everything, Steve. That’s supply planes, trainers, medical transports, combat aircraft, even the heavy bombers, if it’s a plane, chances are that the ATA has moved it.”

“My point is, the ATA doesn’t fly combat missions.” 

She smirked at him. 

“Strictly speaking, she’s not ATA anymore, is she?” When he might have said something, she patted his arm reassuringly. “When she was recruited to the SSR, she was facing potential disciplinary action for flying a mission that she shouldn’t have.” 

Steve was intrigued, and Peggy continued.

“An argument could be made for a mix up, as there was more than one First Officer D. Lewis billeted at her base. However, she also has a history of…pushing the envelope, so to speak. That said, we believe that no other pilot could have flown that mission as successfully as she did, it just needed a woman’s touch. I signed her on myself, the SSR looks for people like her.”

It was high praise from Peggy, and Steve was suitably impressed. Peggy could obviously see it in his face. 

“I wouldn’t send you with just any old pilot Steve. She’s experienced enough, and she’ll be useful if something unexpected happens.”

“I believe you. This’ll be fun.” The planes’ engines rumbled to life, and Steve followed his team into the plane. 

“Good luck!” Peggy called out as he closed the hatch.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *Gooney Bird was the nickname for the Douglas C-47 aircraft, which was a modified civilian airliner and carried troops, cargo and wounded. It seemed like an appropriate airplane to send our heroes off in.


	3. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The story continues, both in 2014 and in 1944.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you all for all the love! I'm so glad that this story is resonating :)

Chapter 2

England: 2014 

“I don’t understand. You’re saying that Darcy, my Darcy, is actually a World War Two Air Transport Auxiliary pilot?” Jane Foster was sitting on the other side of Darcy’s hospital bed with one arm in a sling, Thor holding the other one. 

“Well, I probably won’t know for sure until I get a chance to really talk to her…but she knew me when she was conscious at the lab, and she’s the spitting image of First Officer Darcy Lewis.” Steve told her. 

“First Officer?” 

“It was the ATA equivalent of an RAF Flight Lieutenant. I researched it, later.” 

“A Flight Lieutenant? Darcy? That’s impossible, she can barely drive a car.”

“Jane…be fair. In the time that you have known her, she has driven your…interestingly equipped van, and in a country that she is not familiar with.” Thor reminded her softly. Jane grunted and pulled out a computer tablet from somewhere. 

“Her official file records say she was born in 1990. She went to public school in a small town in Iowa, her parents were George and Grace Lewis, and they were unfortunately killed in a car accident when she was eighteen.” She speared him with a look. “We’ve talked through our difficult childhoods in more than one drunken stupor.” 

“Every good lie has a grain of truth to it. The Darcy Lewis that I knew came from a farming community in Iowa, grew flying crop dusters. Her parents were killed in a car wreck when she was eighteen. When you swap 1990 for 1920, the stories are the same.” 

Jane blinked slowly and put down the pad. Steve’s phone chose that moment to vibrate in his pocket, and he pulled it out of his pocket and frowned at it. When he’d messaged Stark earlier, he had half thought through the idea, and he hadn’t really anticipated that he’d come back so quickly. 

“Tony.” 

_“That was quite the request you made, Cap. ‘Do I still have the files that I pirated from the SHIELD helicarrier?’ Is that a trick question? Of course I still have them, that’s much too much dirt to throw out to the trash. What are you looking for?” ___

“I need whatever files that they had on a First Officer Darcy Lewis.”

Steve could hear the rapid fire clacking of keys in the background and then Tony came back.

_“O-kay…Cap, this girl died in 1944.” ___

“I know that, I was there. I just need the files please.” 

_“On a girl that’s been dead for seventy years – oh. Nevermind, I think I get it. Call me later if you want to chat more about this.” ___

Tony disconnected, and Steve’s phone beeped with an incoming message, with attachments. When he opened the first, he found an imaged copy of First Officer Darcy Lewis’ file that someone had loaded onto SHIELD’s servers in 2010. The second file was a digital file that had been started in 2010, and the photo that was attached to both was the same file photo of a dark haired girl with ATA wings on her jacket collar. That, to Steve, was conclusive evidence that this wasn’t just a coincidence. 

He handed the phone across the bed to Jane Foster and she stared at the photo and her unconscious friend in silence for five minutes before she handed the phone back. 

“Alright, I believe you. Talk.” 

 

* * * 

Somewhere over Europe – 1944

Lewis was an exemplary pilot. Granted he’d only flown with Howard and a few select RAF pilots since he’d arrived in Europe, but for a mission flight this was remarkably smooth. 

The plan was, they would parachute out during a flyby, and so long as she was able, Lewis would land the plane in a nearby field. If she was not able to land, she would return to base and come back to get them from the same field in 24 hours. 

Steve approached the cockpit, where Lewis had one ear on the radio as she operated the craft. 

“How’re we looking?” 

“’We’ are looking very handsome, as a matter of fact.” She gave him an impish grin over her shoulder. “Just don’t tell Barnes, his ego is big enough.” 

He smiled back at her. 

“Bucky’s harmless. But I meant…” 

“I know what you meant Captain. There’s nothing coming in over the German channels that would suggest anyone’s spotted us, at least not yet. And that counts for both the regular bad guys and these super bad guys of yours. We’re about ten minutes out from your landing zone; you fellas might want to get your chutes on.” 

Steve nodded and signaled Bucky behind him. 

“The secondary site is fifteen minutes northeast, we’ll meet you there in three hours. If we’re not there by then, take off and try us again in 24 hours.”

The smile she tossed him was amused. 

“You changing the mission, Captain?” 

“Just lookin’ out for you, ma’am.” 

“I can take care of myself, but thanks for the thought. See you in three hours.” 

She gave him a jaunty salute and Steve saluted back before climbing into his chute and lining up with Bucky and the rest of the team. A few minutes later, Lewis gave the go signal, and they were away. 

* 

It was an easy mission. The Intel hadn’t been wrong, the base was in its beginning stages, security wasn’t tight and wiping it out had been a piece of cake. That meant that they hadn’t been able to learn anything new, unfortunately, but at least they’d been able to neutralize the threat before it became something worse. 

However, when they reached the rendezvous location, what was left of their plane was smouldering wreckage in the middle of the field. 

“Jesus Christ.” Dum Dum muttered, taking off his hat. Behind him, Gabe was muttering under his breath and Dernier was swearing in French. Bucky swallowed and looked away, shaking his head. Steve could tell what he was thinking, because he was thinking the same thing, it was always tragic when someone didn’t make it, but this was a girl they’d been talking to just hours ago. A girl with a pretty smile and a lot of potential. Even so, they needed a new plan, and Steve had already started running through possibilities in his head. 

Then something dropped onto Bucky’s head, accompanied by a sharp hiss. 

“Hey! One of you fellas, catch!” Steve looked up and First Officer Darcy Lewis, alive and well, dropped out of the tree above them, right into his arms. She was grinning at them, and she kissed Steve on the cheek before he set her feet on the ground. 

“Thanks, handsome.” 

“Holy smoke, girl, we thought you’d bit it.” Bucky exclaimed. 

“C’mon Barnes, I’m far too pretty to die.” She said it lightly, but Steve could see the seriousness behind her eyes. 

“What happened?” he asked her, and she turned back to him, all business. She was now an officer reporting to her Captain. 

“German advance scout troop, sir. We flew in under the radar, but either they saw me land or they were extremely lucky. I managed to make cover before they saw me, but they knew that the plane wasn’t supposed to be here. They didn’t even radio in, just tossed a grenade into the engine and took off.” 

“What are the chances that they’re still around, waiting to see who comes back for it?” 

Lewis shook her head.

“Unlikely. I picked the tallest tree around to shimmy up. The two scouts headed off Northeast, I’ve been keeping watch for any other troops, but there’s been no movement out there.” She pointed up at the tree, which was quite high. Behind her, he could see Bucky peering up into the tree thoughtfully, and when he nodded at him, Steve returned the gesture. If it’d been Bucky, he’d have used the same tree, and if her eyes were as good as his, then the chances of discovery here were low. 

“Christ woman, you were lucky.” Dum Dum muttered, and Lewis shrugged. 

“It takes a little more than a couple of lucky scouts to take me down. We do have a problem now though.”

“We need another plane.” Steve finished her thought and she nodded. 

“Right. When I was reviewing the area maps, the Intel mentioned an airfield some miles north of here. I think I saw it when we flew overhead. Anyone got the maps still?” Gabe produced them from his pack and unfurled them on the ground. Darcy, Steve and Bucky knelt around them, and Darcy skimmed over it, her fingers finding their current location easily. “We’re here. The airfield was…here. That’s about twenty miles north. If we can get ourselves there, we can ‘borrow’ one of their planes and get back home.” 

“Sounds simple enough.” Bucky said. Dum Dum snorted. 

“Sure. Twenty miles on enemy territory, on foot.” 

“Not to mention talking our way into a German airfield.” Falsworth commented. Darcy smirked.

“Oh, don’t worry about that, I’ve got that covered. That’s not the problem. The problem is going to be flying home in one of their planes without getting shot out of the sky.” 

“Can you fly a German bird?” Steve asked her. She clucked her tongue at him with a playful glare. 

“Honey, I haven’t met an airplane yet that I can’t fly. Remember, long as she’s got wings, I can fly her.” 

A plan was starting to percolate through Steve’s brain, but it needed time to work itself out. In the meantime they needed to get going, before any one came around looking to see if they could snare some allied troops and they needed to start making headway on their trek. Twenty miles on foot would take just shy of half a day and they would have to stop when night fell. 

“Alright, let’s get walking. I want to get as far as we can before dark. When we do hit nightfall, we’ll find a place to hole up to hammer this out and get some shuteye.” 

They headed out, Dum Dum scouting ahead, Gabe and Morita took point while Falsworth and Dernier helped Lewis through the forest. Steve and Bucky took up the rear guard as they started making their way north.


	4. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane debates the finer points of Darcy's personality, and back in 1944, Darcy and the Howling Commandos are camping out behind enemy lines.

Chapter 3

Jane had downloaded the files that Tony had sent onto her tablet and was cycling through the data as Steve talked. The only reason he knew that she was actually listening was due to the questions that she kept peppering his narrative with. 

Now she’d fixed him with an incredulous look. 

“If I wasn’t looking at someone’s carefully documented evidence that your Darcy and my Darcy are the same people, I would be asking you if you were absolutely sure that you’ve got the right girl.” 

“Why?”

“Well…for one, my Darcy is nothing like the girl that you’re talking about.” 

“What makes you say that?” Thor asked her, and she turned the full force of her look on him. 

“Come on, the Darcy that I know had changed her major twice when I met her, and she was a political science student applying for an internship with an astrophysicist. She’s…flighty. And weird.” 

“The Darcy that I knew was definitely…unusual,” Steve agreed, “but she had a good head on her shoulders.” Thor nodded sagely. 

“She puts on a good appearance of being ‘flighty’, as you put it. I had been meaning to ask her about that.” He said. This, apparently was not what Jane was expecting to hear. Thor smiled and squeezed her hand. 

“I have noticed that this aspect of Darcy’s personality only exits on the surface. Beneath that façade, she is a very intelligent and organized young woman very accustomed to responsibility. You are aware of course that she has been managing your budget for you?”

Even Steve could see Jane’s eyebrows pop in surprise. 

“I knew that she was doing the shopping, of course, but how did you know about that?” 

“The first week that I was residing with you, she had concerns about the quantities of food that I consume and the effect that it would have on your funds. Fortunately, I was able to assure her that I could provide recompense, and I had her contact our friend Stark. I have never heard such a verbal dance in my life. If ever I wish to win a debate, I shall engage Darcy to debate on my behalf. She had arranged for additional funds for your research and secured a regular stipend for ‘care and feeding’ within ten minutes.”

Steve found himself grinning, and even Jane was laughing. 

“I never did ask her where the money for that steak feast came from.” 

 

* 

Europe – 1944 

The sun had long disappeared when they finally found a sheltered rock formation in the forest. They hadn’t come across a single soul in the forest, but they were still behind enemy lines, they couldn’t afford to be anything less than cautious. The rock gave them cover from one side, the forest was good camouflage from all other sides, even with a small fire going. With one lookout hidden up in the rocks and others down on the ground, they were well guarded. 

Because of the outside possibility of having to spend the night in the forest, they had outfitted themselves with some supplies. Among the eight of them, they had four bedrolls and a couple of blankets that Lewis appropriated as a makeshift tent, citing that while she was a tomboy at heart, she was still woman enough to want whatever privacy she could get. 

Gabe had packed emergency rations, Falsworth had all the cups and plates, and Dernier produced coffee and a dented kettle with a smirk. As luck would have it, there was a small stream close enough for them to refill canteens and, naturally, the kettle.

They sat around the fire a while, all of them, discussing the plan as it was so far. It wasn’t actually all that amazing, the bulk of it was that someone would have to distract the guard on the airfield long enough for them to get in, and steal the first plane that they could get their hands on. How they were going to distract the guard…Steve was still working on that, though he could tell that Lewis had some ideas that she wasn’t sharing just yet. He was probably not going to like them. 

Steve was not at all surprised that Lewis lobbied to do her share of the watch. In fact, he had already anticipated that she would ask to be put on rotation, so when she did, he handed her one of his hand guns and put her out between himself and Dum Dum. Bucky was taking the rocks and the rest would sleep a few hours before they changed up. 

After a while, since it quiet, Steve brought around more coffee, first up to Bucky, then to Dum Dum, before he brought over a couple of mugs and sat down with her. 

“So….First Officer Lewis.” 

She smirked at him and took the tin mug from his hands. 

“Yes, Captain Rogers?” 

“May I ask you a question?” 

“Sure.” 

“Why the ATA? Why not WASP?” 

She chuckled into the cup.

“I knew that one of you guys was going to ask me that at some point. Though, I’ll admit I had my money on Barnes, the nosy parker.” She took a sip of the coffee and then half turned to look at him in the fading light. “There are a couple of reasons. I came over here in March of 1942. Jackie Cochrane had grabbed a bunch of us gals who had the qualifying hours, and we went off to test for the ATA. I tell you, that was an experience in itself. Only twenty five of us made the cut. Out of seventy six.” 

“Wow.” 

“Yeah. Before the ATA, I’d flown crop dusters, a Fleet biplane or two and a few Cessnas. The training I got in the ATA though, that has been worth the price of admission over and over again. I have flown everything over here, Cessnas, Avros, Mitchells, Bolingbrokes and even a Blenheim or two. I wanted to fly the Lancaster, but didn’t get the chance before the ATA recruited me. Agent Carter says I’ll still get my chance though. I know there are a few girls who went back once WASP was up and running, but I’d rather keep my lot here. Experience wise, this has been far better for me professionally than if I’d stayed in the States, I have a better understanding of and more skill with more types of aircraft than I did when I got here, and when I go home, it’ll be even better.”

“That does sound like a pretty good reason to stick around.” 

“Well, that and the money.” 

“Pardon?”

“I stayed with the ATA because as of 1943, the ATA pays its female pilots the same as its male pilots of the same grade. WASP pays its members a whopping 65 percent of what a male pilot in either the Air Force or Reserves is paid. These are hardworking women with the same skill set and qualifications as any male pilot, and they do the same amount of work. There is no reason that a woman doing the same work as a man should be getting paid less for it.” 

Steve wasn’t going to argue with that. He’d lived through his mother’s fights for better pay at the hospital, celebrated the victories and mourned the defeats with her. It wasn’t an easy thing to be a working woman, and that was entirely unfair.

“I want to be here, being useful. There is no way that WASP is ever going to let any of their pilots fly outside of the States.”

“How do you know that?” 

“It’s a gut feeling. It’s been a long hard road for us over there already; it’s not going to be any easier now. Face it, the men in charge of the Armed forces are stubborn mules, and they’re very reluctant to let women into their boys’ clubs. They want their women at home in the kitchen. I am a pilot, Captain, I was never any good in the kitchen. I have as much right to risk my life over here as any of you do. I am a fully capable, able bodied person and if I can be useful here, what business do I have sitting safely at home while people are dying?”

This was an opinion that Steve could respect entirely. How long had he spent trying to get into the army to be able to do what she was doing? How many recruitment offices had he stripped down in, hoping to be accepted, only to be told ‘No’? The entire reason he had even agreed to Dr. Erskine’s plan was because he just wanted to do his part. What business did he have to argue this with anyone else? 

He told her as much, and she grinned, holding her cup out towards him.

“Here’s to shared selflessness then, Captain. May it serve us well.”

“Cheers.”

Their cups gave a subdued clink as they met and she downed her coffee in one long gulp. 

“Do you ever regret it?” She asked after she took a breath. 

“Regret what?” 

“Whatever it was that got you over here.” 

Steve shook his head.

“No. It’s not like it’s been easy, but, I just wanted to do my part, and now there’s nothing stopping me from being able to help. You?” 

She shook her head.

“Nah. I’ve always been a fly by the seat of my pants kind of girl. If I regretted anything I did, I wouldn’t be me, you know? What do you think you’ll do when the war’s over?” 

Steve breathed deeply. 

“I don’t know. Go home, I guess. Try to find a normal job.” 

“You got a gal waiting for you, back home?” 

Steve thought briefly of Peggy, and the dance that they were doing around each other. It was hardly appropriate, starting a relationship in the middle of a war, but it was hard to ignore how much he liked her, and how much she seemed to like him. They hadn’t gone anywhere yet, but maybe when the war was over….

“No, not back home,” he answered his companion, “Not many gals took a lot of notice of me before all this.” 

“I find that hard to believe.” 

First Officer Darcy Lewis, he remembered, had no idea that he had not always been ‘Captain America’. She had no knowledge of Steve Rogers’ physique before he stepped into the machine, and therefore had no idea what he was talking about. He was sure that Bucky was laughing at him, up on the rock. 

“I, uh, didn’t always look like this. Used to be pretty skinny. And short.” 

“So?” 

Steve was sure that he was gaping at her. He was equally sure that it was not an attractive look. She rolled her eyes at him and set her cup down. 

“Don’t get me wrong, you’re plenty handsome, Captain. But, where I come from, a man’s face doesn’t matter half as much as his heart, and from what you’ve told me, I don’t think your heart’s changed any, has it?” 

Steve remembered Dr. Erskine’s words again, what the man had seen in a skinny kid from Brooklyn that got him chosen for this. He still held to everything he had then, every ideal, every belief.

“No, I don’t suppose it has.” 

“So then. All these girls who didn’t take any notice of you? They’re blind, shallow idiots if they can’t see a catch like you right in front of them. And the same goes for all the girls that are only seeing your face now.”

Steve could feel his face heating up, he had never been able to take a compliment, and it was harder to do now with so many people looking to flatter his ego. But Lewis was earnest, and she smiled prettily at him, even as she finished off her cup of coffee. 

“Thanks.” He said. “Not a lot of people recognize more than the face anymore, I’m lucky that Colonel Phillips finally listened to me. 

“Pretty sure you had to personally liberate an entire camp of prisoners to get even that, Phillips is a tough soldier.” 

“You know about that?” 

She laughed and winked at him. 

“You know that caused quite a stir. Apparently it was the raging news in all the barracks everywhere for a few weeks. I wouldn’t know I was flying medical transports to and from London. But, it was required reading if I ever expected to fly ‘The Captain’s’ team. Had to know all about you guys.”

“That how you know the easiest way to annoy Bucky is to ignore him?”

“Honey, the easiest way to annoy any man is to ignore him.”

Steve laughed at that, and out of the corner of his eye, saw Gabe and Morita moving over to relieve them, and made to get up. 

She caught his sleeve before he got far.

“Hey, Captain…” he turned back, and suddenly she was right –there-, pressing her lips to his so lightly he wouldn’t have been sure that it was happening if he couldn’t feel the warmth of her a hair’s breadth away. 

When she pulled away, she was blushing, he could see it even in the dim light from the faded fire. 

“For the record…I’d have noticed you.” 

She disappeared back to her makeshift tent before Steve could come up with a response.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Originally, Darcy was going to be a WASP, until I researched and learned that WASP never left the US. When I researched more, I found the ATA and learned that they were an equal opportunity employer, and this was definitely a better fit for Darcy's personality. They really did pay their female pilots the same wage as their male pilots as of 1943, while the American WASPs were only paid 65% of a man's wage. So, all kudos to ATA. Also, quite a few of their notable ladies were Canadian women, and I find this also awesome.


	5. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In 1944, Darcy Lewis and Steve Rogers steal an airplane.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> We are staying in 1944 exclusively in this chapter, veering away from the way the story's been presented so far, but I felt that this part needed to be told without an interruption from 2014.

Chapter 4

Europe 1944

 

The airfield was a mile up the road from a small village that appeared to be abandoned. It was small enough that when the war started, it was entirely possible that the inhabitants had fled to a safer location, or they had been otherwise relocated. 

Gabe and Morita had gone ahead to scout out the airfield, while Falsworth and Bucky went to check out the village. Steve, Darcy and the rest of the Commandos waited under cover of the forest at a crossroads that they had come across. 

Gabe and Morita’s report was what they expected, the airfield was small, but there were definitely planes on the premises. As expected, it was well fenced around and the one gate was well guarded by two large German soldiers, and likely more inside. 

“Were you able to determine how many were inside?” 

Gabe shook his head. 

“There wasn’t a lot of activity. They changed the guard while we were there, so there is at least two more soldiers inside the compound, but if there are more, they never left the control bunker.” 

“Alright, go back and see if you can time the shift change frequency.” 

“Yes, sir.” 

They headed off back to the airfield, just as Falsworth and Bucky reappeared. 

“Report?” 

“As we thought, the village is deserted. It’s small, only a couple of streets to it, not a lot of buildings.” Bucky told them. 

“Either they packed up and bolted on their own, or they were forced out. We checked if there was anything we could use for supplies, but the place has been picked over pretty well.” 

“Did you see any women’s clothing?” Darcy asked. Falsworth raised an eyebrow. 

“We weren’t exactly taking inventory, Miss. There were no shops of that sort....there were some family type houses, perhaps they might still have something.” 

Darcy nodded and turned to Steve. 

“Captain, I’m requesting permission to take a look for myself. If there’s clothes there that I can use, it’ll be useful for the distraction, and I’m not telling you fellas my dress size.” 

Steve frowned. He had known ever since the first planning session that Lewis would likely offer herself up as the distraction for the guards. It had been something of an unspoken reality. The only way any of the Commandos could distract them, would also bring any friends that they had pouring out of the airfield and end with a firefight that they didn’t have enough ammo for. 

But a woman? A woman could slink up to a couple of men in the dark and catch their attention quietly, and could lure them away without bringing on a defensive attack. Especially a very pretty woman in the middle of nowhere, where these men probably hadn’t had female attention in quite a while. 

“You look plenty distracting as you are.” He told her. The only thing that identified her as being remotely associated with the Allied Forces was her jacket, which she could leave with them while she did what she needed. A woman like her, she could wear a dirty rag and men would still follow her anywhere, it didn’t matter if she was wearing pants and boots. But she was grinning at him. 

“Of course I do, handsome. But a nice dress could make the difference between getting shot and getting lucky. Figuratively speaking.”

Behind him, Bucky snickered, and she sent him a venomous look. 

“Alright. Bucky, go with her, make sure she finds what she needs.” 

Bucky grinned and waggled his eyebrows at her, and Darcy rolled her eyes. 

“C’mon doll, time to go shopping. Just don’t expect me to carry your bags.” 

* 

It went against every chivalrous bone in his body to let Darcy head off toward certain danger unprotected. But, he’d learned that nothing stops a determined woman, and she was as determined as he’d ever seen. 

The dress that she’d found in the village was a size too small, which leant itself well to being as alluring as she could be, as did the pair of heeled shoes that she’d found and shined up. Her boots and her jacket were waiting for her back where the Commandos were lying in wait. 

When she was close enough for the two guards to see her, two young guards who looked like they were barely out of school, she called out to them in the sweetest, most alluring voice Steve had ever heard.

“Bon nuit mes gens…peux vous m’aidez? Je suis perdue, et j’ai besoin d’aide.” 

The men mumbled to each other, what Steve could make out seemed very interested.

“C'est interdit.” One of them said in halting and very badly pronounced French. 

“Oh, je suis désolée. Mais…je peux peut-être aussi vous aider?"

They mumbled again, 

"Oui?" 

"Oui, je peux vraiment vous aider….mais, venez avec moi, juste là-bas…c’est plus privé."p>

They could hear her coming back, and heavier footsteps following not far behind her. 

When she rounded the bushes, Steve tugged her behind them while Bucky and Dum Dum effective rendered the guard unconscious. Darcy set about rattling the bushes and making rather obscene noises. When Steve stared at her long enough, she made a face like it should be obvious what she was doing and waved her hands at him. 

Still confused, Steve jerked when Bucky elbowed him and started moaning and groaning along with her. That was when he got it, and was sure that he’d be blushing until tomorrow. Of course the other guard would be suspicious if he didn’t hear anything going on, when she’s basically lured him away with the promise of sex. 

Darcy and Bucky reached a crescendo together, both smirking and barely containing their laughter, and Darcy took a moment to ruffle her hair and unbuttoned a couple of buttons on her dress. She stepped out of a shoe before she stepped out to beckon the other guard. This one made lewd remarks as he approached eagerly, and it was therefore quite satisfying when Steve punched him in the face and knocked him out cold. 

Once both men were secured and silenced, Darcy scrambled back into her boots and shrugged on her jacket. 

“That was impressive.” Steve whispered to her as they crept up to the gate. She grinned. 

“Thanks. That was how I got my last ‘mission’ out of hot water.” 

“Pretending to have sex in the woods?” 

“Ah, no. Pretending to have sex on the German airwaves. They’d picked up on our transmissions, they were coded of course, but the Germans knew there was someone out there. SInce the phrasing was somewhat suggestive, I pretended that I was part of a couple that was getting too friendly next to an open radio transmitter. They bought it and left us alone. I still can’t believe it worked.” 

Steve held his laughter, since Morita was cracking open the gate and motioning them through. 

There was one bunker inside, lights were on, but there was no movement from inside. 

Bucky and Dernier kept lookout while Darcy eyeballed the planes in the yard. 

“Christ, this is a repair field.” She muttered, and ran a hand roughly through her hair while she inspected a small cargo plane. 

“Is that a problem?” 

“It is if none of these planes actually work. Dammit, of course it’s a repair field. That would be our luck.” She darted from plane to plane, her cursing getting more and more inventive as she went. Until finally, she hit gold.

“Here, this is the one.” 

“Are you sure?” 

“It’s the only one that’s fueled enough to get us home.”

“Have you flown one of these before?” 

She chewed the inside of her cheek and shook her head. 

“Not this type, no. But I’m qualified on this class of plane, and I’ve got my Ferry Pilot Notes with me. I can fly her, Steve. This is our only choice.” 

Steve looked at her resolved expression for a moment, and nodded once.

“Let’s get her moving then.” 

Darcy grinned and kissed his cheek again before she climbed in and made for the cockpit. The rest of them pushed the aircraft out of its position, parked as it was in between two small planes and shifted it out so it was facing the runway. As soon as Darcy started her up, it would alert everyone in the bunker and they’d be targets. Steve preferred to delay that as long as possible, therefore they would get the plane out pointed at the runway, and Darcy would do everything she could without the engine until the absolute last moment. 

They reached that moment sooner than Steve had anticipated, and they all clambered aboard while Darcy started the engine. It roared to life with gusto, and prompted immediate action from inside the bunker.

“We’ve got movement!” Bucky said from his standpoint by the hatch. The plane started rolling down the runway slowly, and four German soldier spilled out onto the tarmac, yelling and pointing weapons in their direction. 

“C’mon Darcy-girl, get her movin’.” Bucky called to her.

“Patience is a virtue!” Darcy singsonged back from the cockpit as she started getting her up to speed. 

The Germans fired, and Bucky fired a couple shots off in return.

“Not right now it isn’t!” 

Bullets clanged off the hull of the plane and Darcy started cursing again. Dernier threw one of his remaining grenades out at the soldiers advancing on them with rifles firing almost continuously.

Bucky and Steve both leaned out and fired some rounds off toward them until the plan bounced off the tarmac. 

“Close the door!” Darcy shouted back at them. “Grab a seat and buckle in!” They slammed the hatch closed and dropped down just as Darcy got her up in the air. 

“Congratulations you crazy sons of bitches, we have just stolen a plan from the Nazis.” Darcy told them smartly when they’d leveled off. 

Steve shrugged.

“Not the craziest thing I’ve ever done.” 

Bucky snorted. 

“No, it sure ain’t.” 

*

Of course, they had known that there was a high probability that something would go wrong. 

Once they had gotten up into the air, it became apparent that the bird they’d stolen had recently arrived, which meant that it hadn’t been fixed. Darcy grumbled about the yoke being sticky, and something was wrong with the landing gear. It had been down when they had stolen the plane, and it had come up, but only halfway, and Darcy couldn’t get it to move.  
Plus, it made the most horrific of noises. There was at least a full complement of parachutes, luckily, since it looked like they might need them. 

No one had waylaid them over German territory, mercifully, but as soon as they crossed over into Allied territory, they ran into trouble. They’d been expecting to be able to broadcast a ‘friendly’ message, however it turned out that the radio transmitter on the plane was also in need of repair. 

Steve was watching a pair of allied fighter pilots approach when Darcy’s cursing alerted him to a problem. He leant into the cockpit, keeping out of her way. 

“What’s wrong?”

“The only plane with fuel has no radio. I can’t transmit the friendly message, they’re going to think we’re a German plane, which, they’re not wrong.” 

“What’s your plan then?” 

“My plan? Isn’t that your job?” She half twisted to raise her eyebrows at him before she twisted back to the controls. 

“You’re the pilot, First Officer Lewis, you’re in charge up here.” 

She breathed in and out once, then shrugged. 

“Then you guys better jump. Show them that shield, Captain, let them know that I’m not a threat.” Darcy yelled, over the protesting engine and the sounds of more gunfire. Steve’s stomach turned to ice.

“We’re not leaving you behind!” 

“Someone has to get this bird down without hurting anyone.” She shouted back at him. “The best option is for you to get out now while we’re over water and before they shoot us out of the sky!” 

Behind him, the men were moving, parachutes were being handed out. Darcy turned away from the controls again to meet his eyes. One was shoved passed him to land in Darcy’s lap.

“Steve. The landing gear is done, and the controls are shot. I can’t turn her, the best I can do is correct her trajectory to stay on this path. I can’t communicate with our guys out there to tell them that we’re not the enemy, which means that it’s only going to get worse. Right now, the only chance we have of getting this thing down without causing fatalities is for me to guide her as far as I can until she’s over an area that’s not populated and send her down. I’ll bail out when it’s safe, I promise.”

“Darcy…”

“I’ll be waiting for you to come and find me, okay?”

He stared at her, while behind him the Commandos were opening the hatch. 

Darcy reached across and grabbed him by the collar, pulling him in to kiss him soundly. 

“Go. Next time you can be the noble selfless one. Right now you’re too important to risk on this hell flight.”

“You’ll bail out as soon as it’s safe.” 

“I promise. As soon as it’s safe to put her down, I’m out of here. Get them to stop shooting at me, that’ll help.”

Steve nodded, and behind him Bucky shouted that they were coming up fast. 

“Okay,” she kissed him again and then practically shoved him across the plane. He squared his shoulders and dove out of the hatch, holding the shield out where it could be seen. 

And it might have worked, but the sudden buffeting of air and turbulence caused him to lose track of the plane and moments later it had disappeared.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did not use a translate program for the French in this chapter, but my French is admittedly rusty, so pay no attention to any errors.


	6. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jane, Thor and Steve speculate on how Darcy ended up in the 21st Century. And she finally wakes up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All of your comments have been so awesome! I'm so happy that people are enjoying the story, and please don't be offended if I don't answer you, I am lazy and would also rather spend the time writing the story!

Chapter 5 

England 2014

“Disappeared? Just like that?” Jane asked, her eyebrows nearly at her hairline. Steve shrugged.  
“We’d just jumped out of a plane that was crashing, while it was being fired at. There was a lot going on, and there was a lot of turbulence. I lost sight of her, I thought for a while that she’d just gone down too low for me to see. It wasn’t until later that I found out otherwise.” 

* * * 

England 1944

Steve stared at Peggy blankly.

“What do you mean there’s no sign of her? Are you looking in the right place?”

“Steve…” 

“She would have bailed out somewhere on this line,” Steve pointed on her desk map where the plane was headed when they had jumped, “It can’t be that hard, look for the plane wreckage and search outward. She won’t be far off it.” 

Peggy reached across her desk and laid a gentle hand on his arm. 

“Steve, it’s not just First Officer Lewis that is missing. There is no wreckage to search outward from.”

Steve blinked and sat down slowly in the hard wooden chair in front of her desk. 

“What?” 

“We sent out a search party after we recovered you and your team. Several of the Flight Captains who had engaged your plane reported observing the plane descending in that same direction. We’ve been searching for hours, Steve. There is no plane crash, no one on the ground reports seeing a plane flying low overhead, nothing. Are you sure she couldn’t have pulled her out, taken her farther, found a runway to land on?” 

Steve leaned forward on his elbows. 

“No. There wasn’t enough fuel left to take her farther than a few hundred kilometres. And she couldn’t have changed direction, she’d fought the steering the whole flight back, she could only make minute corrections to the flight path. It wasn’t exactly in the best of shape, that’s why we were being fired at, we couldn’t transmit the friendly message.” 

Peggy patted his arm and shook her head.

“I’m sorry, Steve. If there was anything out there to find, we’d have found it by now. The plane must have broken up in flight. She was taking fire, anything could have happened. We may never recover her.” 

Steve breathed deeply and Peggy came around the desk, leaning against the front of it and laid her hand on his shoulder.

“Barnes said that you’d all become friendly with her. I’m sorry, losing people is bad enough, and it’s harder when we lose friends.” 

Steve pinched the bridge of his nose, feeling more of the world on his shoulders now than he had five minutes ago. 

“I just…she was just so young, Peggy.” 

Peggy’s smile was sympathetic.

“Aren’t we all?” 

* * * 

England 2014

Steve picked absently at a loose thread in the blanket covering Darcy’s legs. 

“We held a memorial service for her. It wasn’t much, but a drink in her memory and a moment of silence seemed fitting. Peggy sent the notification to her grandmother. She was the first person that I lost, and it was harder because she was a woman, and as much as I agreed that she had as much right to be there as any of us did, it was just somehow worse that she was the one who’d died.” 

“Only she didn’t die, she ended up in 2010, and someone at SHIELD knew it.” Jane wasn’t wrong. Steve was at a loss to explain it. He knew how he’d ended up here, a combination of the serum and the ice had saved his life back in 1945. And he knew how Bucky had ended up here, a vicious combination of the same thing that had saved Steve’s life. But Darcy didn’t have the serum. Something else was at work here, and he had no idea where to start. 

“Perhaps it was the Tessaract.” Thor suggested. He’d been pretty quiet for a while, he must have been stewing on his thoughts. Jane looked like Christmas had come early and started tapping wildly at her tablet, and Steve focused on Thor.

“The Tessaract? I thought we’d seen all of what it could do in New York.” 

“The Tessaract is a source of untold power. I am not even sure that my father is fully aware of all it’s abilities. You said that this organization, Hydra, had been experimenting with it?” 

“Yeah…back during the war, Johann Schmidt, or Red Skull, was using it to power his weapons. It was…effective. “ 

“And we know that the Tessaract is capable of opening up portals from one point in space to another. It is not a leap of imagination to consider that it could open up a portal from one point in time to another as well. If configured properly. Or improperly, I suppose.” Thor mused. It wasn’t an outrageous theory. 

“If it was the Tessaract… this was all about a year before we defeated him and the cube ended up in the bottom of the ocean, we have no way of knowing what else he may have tried to do with it after he got his weapons working.” It was true. When the war ended and Peggy and the Commandos raided the last Hydra outpost, they found a lot of stuff. Steve had gone over the files with a fine tooth comb. But that didn’t mean that they found everything. 

“It was.” Jane spoke abruptly. Apparently, when she was in full on research mode, she did not employ full language skills. 

“Pardon?” 

“It was the Tessaract. Look, all of Dr. Banner’s work on tracking the thing was stored on Stark’s databases after New York. As a high level member of the R&D team at Stark, I have access to it. Once you know what you’re looking for, it’s not hard to filter through the historical data.” 

“What historical data might that be?” Thor asked. She rolled her eyes fondly. 

“We’ve had satellites in orbit for a while. They weren’t necessarily looking for the kind of gamma radiation that the cube gave off, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t pick it up. Stark has everything in his databases, I’m telling you. Or…well, I assume they’re his databases, the man is a technological genius with a penchant for hacking government firewalls, I could be looking at something out of NASA’s records for all I know. Of course, I don’t know that Stark would need to hack NASA…”

“You have obviously found something.” Thor brought her back on point expertly. She flipped her tablet so that they could see it. 

“In 1975, a Russian satellite recorded a high amount of gamma radiation in a field in the UK. That same year, part of a wing from a WW2 era plane was discovered in the same area.” She fixed a stare at Steve. “You’re supposed to have a photographic memory, show me the direction Darcy’s plane was flying.” 

Steve frowned at the map she conjured up, and picked out Darcy’s trajectory on it. When he was done, she nodded enthusiastically. 

“Uh huh. That field is directly on her flight path, just thirty years out of date. The partial serial number that they were able to recover from the wing matched a German plane that had been declared a lost asset in 1944. Now…if we pull up the information that they have in Darcy’s file….” 

She plugged that into her map, and turned it around again. 

“There. The SHIELD file on Darcy says that the rest of the plane was found another couple hundred kilometres north of where the wing was located, but this time in 2010. And in 2010, one of the American satellites that Dr. Banner would go on to use in 2012, recorded a concentration of the same gamma radiation in the same area. It was definitely the Tessaract that sent her through. It’s the same low level gamma radiation that Dr. Banner was tracking to locate the cube. I think that it tapped into a wormhole!”  
Steve had to smile, the woman looked like she had just discovered candy. 

“Ugh, you know…it’s not polite to Science! around a person’s hospital bed. Not to mention, you’re all being super ridiculously loud.” A croaky voice broke in and they all looked to the top of the bed again, where Darcy Lewis was smirking at Jane through half open eyes. Thor was immediately on his feet, signalling for a nurse, and Jane shot out of her chair like a cannon ball and wrapped Darcy up in a hug. While she was occupied returning the embrace, she glanced around the room. Her eyes eventually rested on Steve, and widened in surprise. 

“Hello Darcy.” 

“Holy buckets, you are real.” Her smile widened and she reached out a hand to him. “Hello handsome.”


	7. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Darcy gets to tell some of her story.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter decided that it hated me. First there wasn't enough in it, then it was too long and had too much...ugh. So now it's finally been beaten, I hope that it doesn't suck.

Chapter 6

Darcy forced Jane to let her go and sit back down when she saw that the other woman’s arm was strapped into a sling. Jane sat, but fixed her with a stare that even made Steve nervous. He noticed that Darcy hadn’t let go of his hand. 

“You were born in 1920?” 

Darcy blew air up through her hair and shook it out behind her. 

“Surprise?” she said with a shrug and a rueful smile. 

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Jane asked her, and Darcy rolled her eyes.

“Would you have believed me? When we met, I was a student six credits short of her degree who answered your advert for an intern on the night before the deadline. If I’d told you that I was really a certified pilot who flew with the ATA in World War Two, who’d somehow found herself thrown into the 21st Century, you’d have sent me back to Culver in a straightjacket and a padded wagon.” 

Even Jane had to agree that at that point, she probably would have. 

“If it helps, I would have told you soon. We’ve been through enough crazy shit by now…the chances that you wouldn’t think I’d been hit in the head too many times were higher.” 

“Of course I would believe you now. Especially with Captain America backing your story.” Jane said, and Darcy blushed. She met his eyes briefly and gave him a smile that was a little like the ones that he remembered. 

“Well, I’m glad for that. But, to be honest, I’m not even sure that I know all of my story.” 

Thor patted her leg fondly.

“Why don’t we start with what you remember happening to your airplane.” 

Darcy gave him a warm smile and settled back into her pillow a bit. 

“I’d promised Captain Rogers that I would bail out of the plane as soon as I was sure that it wasn’t going to hurt anyone going down. I had her headed for a field, and I had my chute on to jump…and, I don’t know, something must have blown, it took out one of the engines, and the port side wing was shredded, and there was suddenly a lot of light and noise. I bailed out, but I thought maybe I had left it too late, and I was seeing the world through the explosion, and that this was it for me…”

* * * 

2010 – location unknown

Darcy jerked awake from the sound of twisting metal and blue light. She expected to be dead. She was sure that she hadn’t bailed out in time before the world had twisted and disappeared.  
But if she was dead, then the afterlife was decidedly boring and looked a lot like a hospital room. 

“That’s a bit anticlimactic.” She muttered hoarsely. Or at least she attempted to mutter, it came out more like a garbled radio signal. A woman appeared in her field of vision, blonde and wearing a pale blue outfit. 

“You’re awake,” she said, and if you asked Darcy, it was probably the stupidest statement someone could make to someone else. A man appeared next to her in a white coat, shining a light in her eyes. Must be a doctor. 

“Excellent. Miss, can you hear me?” 

She rolled her eyes and nodded. 

“Can you tell me your name?” 

She opened her mouth to speak again, but found that she couldn’t get any volume. The woman, she assumed she was a nurse, gave her a straw and she took a long sip from a glass of water, the clearest water she’d tasted in a long while. 

“Miss?” 

“Lewis. First Officer Darcy Lewis, Strategic Scientific Reserve.” She told them. The nurse frowned and looked at the doctor in confusion. 

“Sorry, love. Strategic what?” 

“Scientific Reserve, I’m one of their pilots. If you contact Peggy Carter in London, she’s my SO. All my details are in my….” Darcy looked around. “Where’re my clothes?” 

“They were unsalvageable Miss Lewis, they had to be off of you in order to apply lifesaving measures. I am sorry. I can arrange to have your jacket and the contents of your pockets sent up to you.” 

“Swell.” Until then, she had nothing accessible to prove her credentials. 

“Miss Lewis, can you tell me the last thing that you remember?” The doctor asked her. She closed her eyes and shook her head.

“The plane was crashing. I’d managed to get it so that it wasn’t going to cause much in the way of damage, but something must have exploded and there was a lot of blue light…”  
The doctor blinked and moved away. She heard the scratch of a pen and then her bed started moving, shifting her into a sitting position. The nurse moved some things around.

“How long have I been here?” She asked the nurse. 

“You were admitted yesterday afternoon.” 

“Was I hurt?”

“I’ll let the doctor talk to you about that.”

“Is this a military hospital? Do you know if Captain Rogers and his team made it okay?” 

The nurse frowned at her.

“I’m sorry Miss, but I’m afraid that I don’t know who that is.” 

“You don’t know who Captain Rogers is?” Now, that was just crazy. Steve was all over the place, everyone knew who he was. 

“We’re not a military hospital, Miss.” 

“But…” 

“Miss Lewis,” the doctor interrupted her. “Can you tell me what year this is?”

Darcy frowned at him.

“It’s 1944, of course. What? Why are you looking at me like that?” 

They both stared at her, and she didn’t like what she was reading in their eyes. 

“What is going on?” 

“Miss Lewis…I’m afraid that I don’t know how to explain this to you other than to be blunt. It’s not 1944 anymore. This is 2010.” 

Darcy had only one response to that. Hyperventilate and pass out. 

* * *

England, 2014

“When I woke up again, I was in a completely different place. Still a hospital, but the first one at least seemed normal, you know, normal sounds, normal smells. Even if it did look like a panel out of one of my old pulp sci-fi comic books.” Steve smirked, and she giggled slightly before she continued, “this place… something felt wrong about it and I wanted out of there within minutes of waking up.” 

Steve straightened in his chair, memories of his first time waking up in this century reminding him that SHIELD was capable of going to ridiculous lengths to accomplish something, though what they thought they could accomplish with a twenty four year old pilot from World War Two, he was sure he didn’t want to know. 

“I had a new nurse, one who could probably give Nurse Ratched a run for her money, and a new Doctor, who proceeded to calmly and patiently explain to me that I had been in a tragic accident and suffered a brain injury that was causing amnesia.” 

Jane snorted.

“Amnesia. That was the best they could do?” 

Darcy laughed.

“Oh no. He also calmly and patiently explained to me that my misfiring synapses had caused my brain to manufacture new memories. Since I was apparently a history student and was studying World War Two in great detail, this would explain why I remembered being an ATA pilot and flying a German plane over the Thames.” 

“You can’t possibly have believed that story.” Jane said derisively. Darcy shook her head.

“Of course not. Besides the entire atmosphere being entirely too contrived, nobody could dream you up, handsome.” Darcy nodded at Steve with a wide smile, and he found himself smiling back. “No, I didn’t believe a word that came out of that guy’s mouth. If it had been that first doctor telling me all of this, I would have been more willing to believe it, but this guy…there was no way that he was telling me the truth and no way that he wasn’t out for something else. He gave me the absolute creeps. And what they gave me as having been 'in my pockets' was definitely stuff that they'd made up themselves. I don't know where any of my actual stuff is.” 

“So if you didn’t believe him…”

“I am really, really good at adapting to my situation, Jane. This I would think you would know about by now, what with all the moving around and the crazy alien things that keep popping up. No offence Thor, you’re not crazy. Comparatively speaking.” 

“I take no offence sister.” 

“Good. So, no I didn’t believe him, but what good was arguing with him going to do me? I do believe that if he wanted to, he could have made me believe whatever he wanted me to believe, so I just played the stupid girl card and went along with the story they were building for me. I figured that they’d let me be at some point, and then, I could make my own way around.” 

“So they concocted a story that you were a history student?” 

“At some University in New York. They created my whole life, my student records, everything. They even manufactured a change in my major so that I ‘read like a normal kid’. I disliked the school so, I engineered a transfer out to Culver, it was quieter and since the thing with the green rage monster, they weren’t being overly critical of their student applications. The credits that they’d given me got me a change to political science, but to get anywhere else I was going to have to actually take the classes. It was boring as well. I needed something to spice up my life.” 

“And then my internship.” Jane said. Darcy nodded, and Jane’s furrowed brow deepened slightly. “Did you…you didn’t apply to my internship because of….” She trailed off, waving her hand around vaguely. Darcy shook her head vigorously and reached for Jane’s free hand. 

“No. I had enough credits to make that my major, but I didn’t have the credits required to graduate. At the end of the year, I still needed six science credits, and the guidance people said either I had to pick a science course, and spend a summer in a classroom wanting to poke my eyes out with pencils, or see if one of the internship opportunities would take me. Your ad was on the wall, and the deadline to apply was that day, so that’s what I did. You called me two days later and told me to meet you in the parking lot at the observatory with enough clothes for a two week trip. I was a pilot in the Second World War Jane, I’ve always been a lot more action oriented, when we stayed in the desert for six months and ran over a Norse god, I figured I’d made a good choice. I haven’t been disappointed yet.”

Jane smiled more easily and even Thor looked pleased. 

“You learned all of the modern stuff pretty quickly, I mean, I still don’t know how to change my ringtone…” 

Darcy shrugged.

“Like I said, I am adaptable. I learn really quickly, especially when I can learn it hands on. That’s why I was so good with planes. Computers are nothing compared to the engine of a  
Cessna. And the internet, so helpful.” 

Steve agreed heartily and Jane started laughing suddenly.

“This also explains how you can swear in three different languages. And how you’re so creative at it.” 

Darcy laughed with her.

“You better believe it. I was essentially living with soldiers, the most foul mouthed people in the history if the world, right Steve?”

“Sailors don’t hold a candle, doll.” 

This caused another round of laughter, however, Thor was pensive.

“I do not understand what these persons were attempting to accomplish by placing you outside of their sphere of influence.” 

“Someone made the connection to your original file in 2010. They had to, or it wouldn’t be here in this data. But, these files aren’t referencing anything about Puente Antiguo, and SHIELD was definitely involved there, they stole all my stuff!” Jane huffed. 

Steve’s phone rang sharply and, seeing who it was, he put it on speaker phone.

“Tony.”  


_“Heeey guys. So, you know what I’m like when I’m presented with a problem to solve. I found more files on Lewis… you might be interested in these.” ___

__Jane’s tablet made a noise, and she tapped at it eagerly._ _

__The language she used when she read it had Darcy raising her eyebrows._ _

__“Right. If that makes you swear like me, then someone’s in a lot of trouble.”_ _


	8. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Hydra had a plan for Darcy....fortunately Steve started burning them to the ground before they could do anything about it...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah...sorry about the long wait after that bit of a cliffhanger. The plan I originally had for this chapter decided it did not want to pan out for me, and then Christmas happened. From here though, it should be a little smoother sailing.

“What? What else did he find?” Steve asked. Jane was practically spitting, so he took the tablet out of her hands. What he saw on it…it made him want to go punch things. Darcy touched his hand and blinked at him.

“What?” 

Steve swallowed. 

“You were targeted by two different factions of Hydra, at first they were just monitoring you, you’d travelled through time somehow, their scientists wanted to see how you adapted to the environment, see if you’d been adversely affected by whatever it was that transported you, or if you’d been affected in any way at all.”

“Even if they didn’t know if it was the Tesseract that had done it, I guess if I passed through something that would give me a…unique gift, Hydra would be interested in it.” 

“Exactly. They didn’t observe anything unusual. You were a run of the mill American girl, and that’s what you stayed as, so they were losing interest in you. They did keep track of where you went, but they left you alone because you weren’t interesting, a victim of random chance.” 

“Ok…nice to know. Obviously something changed.” 

“SHIELD started a file on you after New Mexico, one with all of your 21st Century details. Hydra’s guys had left programming in the databases that if your name was used in a SHIELD file, it would get noticed. Jasper Sitwell noticed, and they started making new plans.” 

Darcy held out her hand for the tablet, and Steve handed it to her wordlessly. She skimmed it, and her eyebrows climbed to her hairline. 

“Huh. Well, that’s colorful.” 

“That’s a pretty tame way of putting using you like a sacrificial guinea pig.” Jane spat. “Just the idea of it….” 

Thor interrupted before the tiny brunette could get going full steam. 

“What was it that they were planning for you, my Darcy?” 

“They wanted to use me as a start to a super soldier breeding program.” One blonde eyebrow rose sharply. 

“I beg your pardon?” 

“It looks like even though Hydra was living in the shadows of SHIELD, they weren’t exactly cohesive, not until after Loki decided to rain down hellfire with his staff of Ra. That’s when Alexander Pierce stepped up to control all of the little bits and pieces, and Sitwell happened to mention that there was something weird going on with this file that had pinged after New Mexico. When they looked into it, and into my original record, they decided that because I’d flown my last mission with Captain America, and was also involved with Thor, I was a perfect pawn. Seems they had their own supersoldier, but like always, couldn’t replicate the serum for use on other subjects. They were going to kidnap me and impregnate me in order to test the feasibility of breeding their own army.” 

Outside, a storm started to brew, and Darcy took hold of the hand that the Thor wasn’t using to hold onto Jane. 

“You can relax, big guy. Obviously they didn’t manage to carry out their plan.” 

“I took out Hydra before they could move on it.” Steve added. 

Darcy nodded and handed the tablet back to Jane.

“Yes. And their supersoldier was starting to flake out a bit, they weren’t sure that he was going to be stable enough for the program to continue.” 

Steve breathed in slowly and closed his eyes. He felt Darcy take his hand, and when he opened his eyes, she was looking at him in confusion.

“What’s wrong?” 

“Their supersoldier. It’s Bucky.” 

Darcy gasped and squeezed his hand.

“I didn’t…I looked up everyone when I got to Culver and felt like I could do something like that without drawing eyes…I read that he’d died on a mission.”

“That’s what we all thought. It turns out that he didn’t. When I found him originally, they’d already experimented on him, we figure that they must have treated him with some version of the serum that worked to a certain extent, and it saved his life. Only for Hydra to capture him all over again. They brainwashed him, made him into an assassin.” 

“Jesus, Steve. I’m so sorry.” 

“I managed to break through his programming I think. He’s out there on his own somewhere, I’m trying to find him.” 

“Well, I hope that you do.”

“Thanks.” 

At that moment, Jane let out a yawn that seemed to split her face in two, and Thor took that as a cue to bundle her back to her own hospital room.

“I’m fine, I promise.”

“You are not. You have sustained an injury, and your medical people have declared that you must sleep here tonight. I am returning you to your assigned chambers, and you are required to take another dose of your pain medication, are you not?” 

“I’m fine, I don’t need- hey!” Thor scooped her up out of the chair and started towards the doorway. 

“We will see you in the morning, my Darcy. Sleep well.” 

“Thanks buddy. Sleep Jane! We’re all fine, and science will wait.” 

Darcy laughed when they could hear Jane’s continued grumbling fade away down the hall along with Thor’s footsteps. Left alone, suddenly Steve found himself a little tongue tied, and he looked down at their intertwined hands. He looked back up at her face when she squeezed his hand again. 

“I thought you were dead,” he said, squeezing her hand back. She smiled slightly. 

“I was. First Officer Darcy Lewis was killed in action in 1944, that’s what the official government records say. I’m not one to argue with history. The Darcy Lewis that I am now is hardly the same person.” 

“But you are though. In essentials, nothing’s changed.” 

“Steve…you knew me for three days. You can’t possibly know anything about my ‘essentials’.” 

“Sure I do. You joined the ATA because you wanted to make a difference, the same way that I wanted to join the Army. We both ended up in the same organization for the same reasons, we’re risk takers who just want to help. None of that’s changed.” 

She blushed pink and looked away from his eyes to examine the blanket again. 

“The difference is, you’re still Captain America. I’m not a pilot anymore, I’m just an intern.” 

“You’re a valuable member of the team who knows the ins and outs of Einstein-Rosen bridges, on the frontier of cutting edge science that will one day lead us further to the stars. Would Jane Foster be here today if you weren’t around?” 

Darcy snorted.

“Please, she’d have either sent herself to Mars by accident or been killed by her own equipment.” 

“Well then? You found a way, even here. Thor speaks very highly of you, Darcy. The approval of the God of Thunder isn’t something to take lightly.” 

Darcy grinned at him. 

“I suppose it’s not.” She was quiet for a moment, then she gave him a rueful smile and went back to staring at the blanket.

“I didn’t think you were real.” 

“Pardon?” 

“None of the footage from New York or Washington ever showed your face close up. Or if it did, it was too blurry to make anything out. And the uniforms were different, I didn’t believe that the Captain America running around saving the world was actually you. So, I figured that someone had found a guy who could fill your shoes. I couldn’t ask Thor, not without giving away that I knew more than I should, plus he is good at disappearing.”

“Ah. Well, I wasn’t exactly keeping a high profile, I like my privacy.” 

“Of course, everyone does. But, how did you end up here? From what I read, you should have died in that plane.”

“If we go by your logic, I did. Captain Steve Rogers died in a plane crash saving New York City, officially. The man who woke up again though, I’m not sure is the same guy.” 

“What about what you just said about essentials? Yours are still the same as mine, otherwise you wouldn’t have fought in New York, and you wouldn’t have been in Washington.”

It was his turn to smile ruefully. 

“I suppose you have me there. I don’t know, Darcy. It wasn’t the same, after I woke up. They still don’t know for sure what exactly happened. The general consensus is that the extreme cold and the serum together put me into hibernation while I was in the ice.”

“That’s pretty insane. But no more than parachuting into a time tunnel, I suppose.” 

“Sometimes I think that all that time in the ice has frozen more of me than just my body, that there are parts of me that still need to be thawed out. When I went under, everything was pretty clear, black and white, good and bad. Now it’s all shades of grey, and I have trouble making sense of which shades are good. Sometimes I wish I had survived the plane crash.” He mused quietly. 

Darcy breathed in deeply and brushed her thumb over his hand. 

“Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I’d bailed out thirty seconds sooner. Maybe I’d have been shot down on the next mission. Maybe I’d have worked with Peggy Carter in the SSR after the war was over, and led a decent life. But, if I had, I wouldn’t have been with Jane in the desert. Everything that’s happened to her since I joined her…I don’t know if it would have happened the way it did. There’s been some pretty ugly things happening lately, that we’ve each influenced. If we weren’t here, the world would be pretty doomed.” 

Steve had to laugh at that. She wasn’t wrong. Between the Chitauri and the Hydra situation, if he hadn’t gone into the ice, there’s no telling what would have happened to the world. He was sure that the rest of the team would have fought, and fought hard, but the end result still could have been radically different.

Darcy yawned then, and Steve let go of her hand reluctantly. 

“You should get some rest. You need the sleep too.” 

“Yeah, I am a little tired. Will you stay? At least until I fall asleep?” 

“I can do that. I’ll be here tomorrow too.”

“You don’t have to do that you know. Worry about me. Thor and Jane worry enough for a dozen people sometimes, and you have things to do, I’m sure.”

“I keep getting told I need to take a break. Now’s as good a time as any.” 

“If you’re sure.” 

“I’m sure. Go to sleep, Darcy.”


	9. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sam tracks down Steve at the hospital and is pleasantly surprised when he finds him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *peers out from behind corner and coughs in embarrassment* So, yeah. That rapid update I was planning, didn't actually happen, you may have noticed. Between computer problems, life happenings and a massive case of writers block, this chapter didn't turn out the way I'd originally envisioned it. So, this is filler, but hopefully nice filler.

When Sam finally found Steve, he watched incredulously from a doorway while he dozed in the most uncomfortable of chairs next to a hospital bed housing a pretty brunette. What he was incredulous about was the fact that Steve was holding her hand.

The thing about Steve, Sam had quickly realized, was that despite the number of people that he counted as friends, he was an incredibly lonely man. Romanoff wasn’t wrong, man needed to find himself a nice girl, Sam just felt that she was going about it all wrong. Steve needed to have something in common with the people that he let into his life, and that would go doubly for any girl he ultimately decided to start something with. 

Romanoff’s direct and to the point way of doing things may work on missions, but not so much with a man who doesn’t want to be set up on blind dates. Sam had been trying to be a little roundabout, sneaking the topic into conversations when his guard was down. He’d been striking out too, but this…this looked promising. He assessed the girl in the bed. She was pretty, brunette and curvy, from what he could see from the door. Strangely, he found himself reminded of the old file photos of Agent Carter. Steve, it seemed may have a type. 

“So…you wanna fill me in?” he asked, keeping his voice low enough not to disturb the bed’s occupant. Steve jerked awake immediately, and Sam did not feel at all badly about it. 

Steve blinked, registered his presence and sat up straighter in his chair. Sam noticed that he didn’t relinquish his hold on the girl’s hand.

“On what, exactly?” 

“I don’t know, maybe why I had to haul my ass over to a burnt out building at the crack of stupid o-clock to collect our car? Which, by the way, got a parking ticket that you’re paying for, because I’m sure not. Or maybe this little brunette here, who seems to be important enough for you to stick around her bed all night?” 

Steve sighed and gestured to the other chair in the room. 

“That’s a very long and complicated story.” 

Sam sat and raised his eyebrows at him. 

“I don’t have anywhere to be.”

Steve opened his mouth to start talking, when the girl groaned in annoyance. 

“Oh my god, what is it with people and talking around people’s hospital beds? Does it ever occur to you that we invalids may actually want to stay asleep?”

Steve winced, and Sam stood again, offering his hand to shake her free one. 

“My apologies ma’am. Sam Wilson.” 

“Darcy Lewis. Apology accepted.” She eyed him, and he found himself grinning at her. She grinned back and tilted her head in Steve’s direction. “You with him?” 

“Most days.” 

“Fair enough. So, you wanted the story, yeah? The short story is that I’m a WW2 era pilot who met Steve in 1944. I found a freak time travelling wormhole that dropped me in the 21st century. We’re…getting reacquainted.” 

Sam did not laugh. 

“And the long story?” 

Darcy laughed. 

“That you can read on Steve’s phone or Jane’s tablet, if she’ll surrender it long enough.” 

“I see. You know, a few months ago, I would have thought this was crazy. But I walked by a dude that I am pretty sure was Thor on my way in here, and I’m following Captain America around the planet looking for his wartime buddy that also miraculously survived to this century, so.” He shrugged and sat back down. 

Darcy snickered and took her hand back from Steve to stretch out. 

“Tell me about it. If I hadn’t come from 1944, everything that went down with Thor in New Mexico probably would have done me. But hey, if a lady pilot from WW2 can end up in the 21st Century, why can’t Norse gods be actual guys who break coffee cups and cook eggs.” 

“Thor cooks?” Steve interjected. Darcy grinned and nodded furiously.

“He learned back when he thought he was going to be stuck on Earth as a human guy for the rest of his life. Even though he’s not stuck, he carries his weight around the lab when he’s there, cooks us breakfast all the time. He’s learning the art of the waffle iron now.” 

“Huh. He’s been holding out.” 

“He does it for Jane, mostly. I love that I get to reap the benefits of it though. He makes good eggs.”

“Indeed, for I had a most excellent teacher!” A voice boomed from the door. “My lady Darcy is very humble, it is she who has taught me nearly all that I know of Midgard cooking.” 

Steve raised an eyebrow at Darcy, who blushed furiously.

“Didn’t you say once that you were pretty useless in the kitchen?” He teased, and she made a face at him.

“In 1944, I was. In 2010 I had to learn or be stuck eating take out for every meal. Have you eaten what passes for food at a fast food joint?” She mimed vomiting. Steve had to agree. “In the army you got three meals a day, maybe nothing fancy but at least you didn’t have to worry about dying of a heart attack while eating it.” 

Sam grinned and held out a fist, which Darcy bumped with her own right away. 

“Fries though.” He said and she laughed.

“Ohmigod, fries. Those are possibly the only redeeming item. I will happily take those over boiled potatoes any day.” 

“Amen to that.” Steve added. Thor boomed with laughter again, then settled into a more serious mood. 

“I come with news, Jane has been cleared to leave the hospital provided that she is monitored, and I have secured the services of a physician to come and examine Darcy to determine if she may also be discharged. He should be here momentarily. There was also a message from our friend Stark, he has offered Jane space at the Tower, and he is sending a conveyance to collect all that remains of her equipment and bring all who wish to remove to the Tower back to your City of New York.” 

Darcy clapped her hands in excitement.

“Ooh! Avenger’s Tower? I’m sold, do I get my own room?” Thor nodded his assent, and assured her that Stark was having suites prepared for all those currently in London, including Steve and Sam. 

Steve directed his attention to Sam. 

“You, uh…want to discuss that?” Sam nodded, and Steve patted Darcy’s leg as he got up. Sam followed him out to a lounge that was blissfully empty. Sam leaned casually against a counter with his arms crossed, fixing Steve with a look. 

“You, my friend, are unbelievable. How do you manage with all this crazy stuff happening to you all the time?” 

“I punch a lot of stuff. Sometimes I punch people.” Steve said dryly. 

“Well, you know that I go where you go. What are you thinking?” 

“We’ve tapped out our leads on Bucky here.” 

“The first one we got was the only real good one we had, he’s been a ghost since then. I doubt he’s even in the country anymore.” Sam agreed. 

Steve nodded and turned away to look out the window. Sam recognized the stance, Steve was torn. Sam knew that finding his friend was a major priority. Bucky Barnes, or whoever he had become now that Hydra no longer had control over his brain, had been an important part of Steve’s past, he was the only person who’d known the man that Steve had been before becoming Captain America. He wanted to find Bucky more than anything. 

But, at the same time, there was a tangible link to his past was lying in a bed less than 50 feet away. Sam still wasn’t entirely clear on how they’d known each other, or what there was between them, but she was a living breathing person who had lived through some of what Steve had lived through, and she was right there. The draw of that had to be insane.

“Steve…maybe it wouldn’t be a bad idea to head back for a while. Stark’s got some major league toys, and we need more than stale leads to go on.”

Steve nodded and turned around.

“The added bonus being able to spend some time with Darcy, get to know her again, right?” 

“Well, I wasn’t going to say anything.” Sam grinned, and Steve rolled his eyes. “Seriously though, it wouldn’t such a bad thing. She seems like a lot of fun, no matter what century she happens to be living in. Just…” 

“Just what?” 

“Keeping in mind that I have no idea exactly what happened between you two, and I don’t really want all of the details, my only caution is to make sure that you’re not confusing the Darcy that you knew with the Darcy she is now. She’s led a different life, just like you have, just like Barnes has. I would hate for either of you to be disappointed because you’re not the people that you remember.”

Steve nodded, frowning as he considered his words. 

“I don’t know what’s between us either. But, I think I owe it to myself to find out, even if it doesn’t work out in the end.” 

“So, New York, New York?” 

“New York.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here, I plan to take the action back to New York and lead into AOU. Just, bear with me while I figure out how to do that :)


	10. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> An epilogue of sorts.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry folks, but this story doesn't want to write itself nicely. Every time I think I've figured out what's wrong I get stuck somewhere else. It's getting to the point that I can't put focus on other projects because this is sitting here, waiting. So, this is an epilogue of sorts to the action from this story. It leaves me in a place where I can now work on a Part 2, with fresher ideas.  
> Also, I apologize for any formatting errors. I wrote and edited this on my phone.

***

Darcy turned the TV off and absently tossed the remote on to the table in front of her. It was a long moment before she moved.

  
When she did, she stood from her seat and turned to head toward the door of the employee lounge.

"Where are you going?" Erik Selvig asked her, peering at her with the same expression on his face that she'd seen directed at Jane whenever she did something that he didn't necessarily agree with. Darcy shrugged.

  
"I don't know. Wakanda's looking nice this time of year."

  
"Darcy..." Erik glanced up at the corner and cringed. Darcy followed his line of sight and looked rapidly away from the security camera that could capture her words for any skilled lip reader to decipher.

"Don't even start. You're not my father, and I'll remind you that I was making my own decisions before you were born. If Steve needs help, I can't stay here sitting on my ass."

  
"You don't know that the Captain needs any..."

  
In a sudden fit of temper, Darcy grabbed the nearest object and hurled it at the wall as hard as she could. It happened to be a mug that she was fond of, but it was still satisfying.

  
"Of course he needs help! The whole fucking world and one of his closest friends has turned their backs on him! He needs all the friends that he can get right now, especially since the most of who he has left have been locked up on the fucking Raft."

  
Erik sighed the deep sigh of the long beleaguered. He was pretty used to watching Jane go off and do her own thing.

"Darcy, I'm just worried. If you go to Wakanda, you'll be going against the accords. You might not be able to come back, not for a long time."

  
Darcy's sigh echoed his.

  
"Yeah, well I'm not an Avenger, I never signed anything. Can't hold me to something I didn't agree too. ...and,I know you're worried, I'm sorry. But, what else do I have here? Jane has been incommunicado since Thor swept her off on the rainbow bridge. I have no family here, and my milk run supply flights can be done just as easily by any number of other pilots. No one's going to miss me here."

  
"I'll miss you."

  
Darcy smiled and reached out to pull him into a hug.

  
"Thank you, I'll miss you too, but I have to go and help. I once told Steve that I had no right sitting at home when there were people dying for us in a war. That still holds true now. How can I sit here on my ass waiting to be useful when there are people who need help?"

  
Erik pulled back from her and smiled at her.

  
"I understand. Just, be careful. Jane will kill me if anything happens to you."

  
Darcy grinned and turned for the door, only to find Natasha Romanoff standing in it, watching her carefully. Darcy froze, but met her gaze evenly.

  
After a minute the redhead nodded once and stepped forward, carefully turned so that the security cameras wouldn't pick up her words.

 

"They haven't inventoried the Quinjets since the drama at the airport. If you leave now, you won't be missed. I can guarantee that there'll be a flight plan ready for you in twenty minutes."

  
"I haven't qualified on the Quinjets, I don't have a clearance code to access them."

  
"You know enough to get you to Wakanda. After that Clint or Steve can teach you the rest. And as for codes...take this."

  
She handed her a small piece of paper so quickly Darcy wasn't sure her hands had moved."

  
"What is it?" She didn't dare look at it.

  
"Your clearance code. Well, actually it's Stark's, he doesn't know that I know it, of course."

"Of course. What about you?"

  
"Well, since King T'Challa recanted his statement against my actions in Germany, Ross can't touch me. I can do more good here. I'll be fine."

  
Darcy nodded.

  
"Thanks."

  
"Just... Tell Clint that I'll keep Laura and the kids safe. And that Laura said she's going to kick his ass when he gets back."

  
Darcy barked out a laugh.

  
"Done."

  
"And tell Steve that he's not alone."

  
Darcy nodded again, and Natasha shooed her out of the room.

****

"Captain Rogers... We seem to have a situation."

  
Steve sat up straighter in his chair and met the King's eyes. He was frowning.  


"What kind of situation?"  


"One of the Avengers' Quinjets has entered our airspace, in stealth."  


Steve rose to his feet and followed the monarch out to the monitoring station where a technician was frowning at her screen. 

  
"I don't understand. The craft is flying under stealth, but the pilot is broadcasting a signal. Why would someone broadcast a signal while in stealth? Does that not defeat the purpose?"

  
"What frequency is it broadcasting on? One of the ones we're monitoring for Avengers activity?"  


"No your Majesty. It's broadcasting on a frequency that hasn't been in frequent use since 1945. Not even SHIELD has used it since then."

  
Steve straightened.  


"Is there audio?"  
"Yes."  
"Can I hear it?"  


The tech nodded and opened up a couple of windows on her computer screen. And after a moment, the voice came through as clear as day.  


"For Captain Rogers, come in Captain, over. Repeat, this is SSR First Lieutenant Lewis for Captain Rogers, do you read this message, over."  


Steve chuckled. 

  
"Of course, who else would use an old WW2 frequency to try and find me?"  


"You know the pilot?"  


"Darcy Lewis. She's a friend. She must have stolen the Quinjet from The Avengers facility." 

Behind him he heard T'Challa ordering a squadron escort to bring her in to their landing bays. 

"Can you patch me through to her?"

  
The tech hit a switch and nodded at him.  


"First Lieutenant Lewis, this is Captain Rogers, we're reading your signal, over."

  
"Steve! I knew you'd figure it out. I thought you might need a pilot with some mad skills, am I right?"  


"You read my mind sweetheart. Disengage the stealth mode on the jet, there's some guys coming out to meet up with you and bring you into the hangar bay. I'll meet you there, ok?"  


"It's a date, captain. I've got our friends on the scanners and disengaging the stealth. I'll see you in a few minutes."

***

Steve fairly ran the distance to the hangar bays, T'Challa trailing at a more stately pace. He pushed through the doors just as the ramp for the Quinjet was hitting the floor, the engines were still winding down. He beat it across the Tarmac and arrived at the bottom just as Darcy appeared at the top of it. She grinned and marched down to stand in front of him at attention, topped off with a smart salute.  


"Reporting for duty sir."  


He smiled sheepishly, and shook his head.

  
"You don't have to do that, you know." 

  
"We're not in the air, Captain. On terra ferma, you're in charge, remember? Permission to join up sir."  


Steve straightened and saluted her back.

  
"Permission granted."

  
She grinned and jumped to hug him. 

  
"Hello handsome."


End file.
